Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1887-11-19

cry has gone up In every country
from the millions against the ex-
tremes in the conditions of life and
property. 1t has caused revolutions
in every country. The great have
lost their beads, and in exile. and
execution the condemned have sui
fered without fiinching. The world
says bravado has kept up this show
of courage and heroism. Was it
bravado IN the prosecutions Tor the
faith :? No, it was the Inspiration Of
martyrs. Then it must be a similar
inspiration in the faith of their cause
that enables the deluded members
of society to-day to meet death. For
every death of criminal against the
laws of his government there seems
to have sprung up hundreds more !;
and if it takes all the powers of a
government to crush out the mlser-
able life of these Socialist leaders,
how much more power does it take
to crush out their principles? Gov
ernments have always treated this
class as outlaws, and our government
is following the same tactics in its
miserable spie system, so foreign to
our own institutions. In the Chica.
60 executions every other man was
a spie in civilians dress, and did
spectator open his mouth or the
wives and children ofthe condemned
persistin seeing their dear ones once
more, "To Prison" was the watch
word. 1t reminds one of "To the
Towern or the Bastile, !" or "To the
Lions" in the ampaitheatres of an
Gent Rome,-all for seven helpless,
condemned Anarchists. Without
any pretext the police beat their
prisoners over the heads with their
batons, as in London 1000 police
had an enjoyable slugging.match
with the hungry mob crying for
work or bread. Once the mob is
armed, 1000 to 1900, the crisis will
be more even.sided. '.'.'
Another alarming feature of these
disturbances is, that capital and cor.
porations lend their millions against
the oppressed. The anarchists we're
hung for conspiring to murder.
Within the past few years Pinker-
toms detectives have shot down doz.
ems of innocent men,-two mere
boys in a New England town, for
snowballing them, show us the
record of a single PInkerton MUIR
derer's hanging? There is not one.
The capital that hired them, and
weak and prejudiced public opinion,
saved them.
The London Illustrated Ne,cs this
week brings pictures of the "Poor
of London" sleeping on the bare
stones in front of the palaces, crouch
ing close to one another on the Park
green, where a few hours before
wealth and fashion moved. to keep
warm in the cold night air, from
which their miserable rags will not
shelter them. With these haggard
faces and concentrated heaps ofmis.
cry before our eyes, we cannot won.
der that the red hands and shriIl
voices of men are raised to heaven
in cutlery against those who deem
themselves exempt from the law of
God. There is something radically
wrong In such state of affairs.
The question is twofold, THE cause,
-selfishuess and human greed; the
remedy,-violence 7 1t has been
tried for centuries! Religious influ-
ence? 1t can barely control its own.
Education 1t is abused. Greater
liberty One is afraid to mention
the word, for Liberty is license
What then Z?
EXTREMES OF THE PRESS.
The press lives and tbrives on the
extremes of sensationalism aud ex-
cltement. Such incidents as the
Anarchist trials and executions are
fat morsels for its extended and in.
satiate organs of digestion. Truth
is nowhere. Lying and exaggera.
ton are everything. A horde of
hungry reporters break their necks
tumbling out Of the death room of
Lingg to wire the horrible details.
They wave their handkerchiefs at
the moral death.signals from a slug
ging match to a horse. race,--at every
moral, civil and political designation
and assassination in the country.
While counting the proceeds of the
sale OF extras from such sensational
proceedings, the powers of the press
behind the throne cater editorially
to the designs of corporations or pol
iticians, or a morbid public made so
by morbid press. 1t is safe to say
that five per cent. Of the millions of
readers of the Anarchist and Social
ist excitements, lose their heads in
similar EXTREMES. as6 .aaa fas
EXTREMES OF RELIGION.
The same excitement and sensa.
tionalism that move the press. move
the pulpit, spasmodically. 1t con.
tends with evil when the passions
are the highest, and forgets the next
occasion of sin while it IS brooding.
The same causes that drove the So
clalists and anarchists from Europe,
drove the church to America. When
her possessions became temptation
to crafty craftsmanship, they were
seized upon and the possessors ex-
PEELED. The same growth IL going
on here to the same end in time. In
some divisions of religion, success
depends not upon the salvation of
souls. bnt III on the acquisition of
church property; if it does not pay
in one part of the country, anotheris
tried. Religion is united in nothing,
and divided in everything, yet it has
the whole world aud all the passions
of men as one common foe. We read